Best Friends, Remember?

The shocking discovery

Genevieve was sitting in class, having her English lesson. Luckily, she paid attention to was the teacher saying, however she was also thinking about the upcoming Halloween. Maybe not the perfect time for making plans, but it felt necessary to focus on something, that will at least be useful in the future.

The teacher – Mrs. Hughes – was giving an extremely long speech about Shakespeare’s life, which knowing seemed crucial, judging by the way she spoke about it. Barely anyone was listening. But Genevieve was.

Mrs. Hughes has caught her attention by mentioning, William Shakespeare’s wisdom and deep thoughts.

"This is true" thought Genevieve and recalled her favourite quotes.

“Loves look not with the eyes, but with the mind” from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

“Love is blind” from The Merchant of Venice.

“To be wise and love, exceeds man’s might” from Troilus & Cressida.

Genevieve rested her chin against her wrist and pretended to make notes about the famous British poet. She didn’t have to, as far as admired him in her heart. She didn’t have to have proof on a piece of paper. In fact, she started drawing some flowers all over the margin. They were lilies. Her favourites. She couldn’t get why did she like them – they’ve always been associated with funerals. Not weddings, baby showers and stuff. Maybe this fact made them so special – they were rare in people’s lives. You couldn’t get bored.

Genevieve moved her eyes to the opened window. The sky that was on the other side was dark grey because of the ubiquitous, dense fog. It covered pavements, buildings, and trees. It looked like people were appearing from nowhere on the streets, which by the way weren’t crowded so much.

Suddenly George – Genevieve’s African-American classmate – has closed the window, so she could come back to earth. She took a disgusted look at the whiteboard and realised she had to catch up with some notes connected with the “Pumpkin Dance” – a Halloween ball, which was supposed to be on Friday the thirty-first in Kingston High.

Five minutes later life has become sensible again, as Genevieve heard the bell rang. Everyone has packed and walked away. Genevieve packed her things too and started searching for her phone at the bottom of the pocket.

“Hey!” Rebecca called; “finally over, huh? Did Mrs. Hughes give you any homework?” she asked.

“No. Luckily not” replied Genevieve and then shyly smiled to her friend; “Any plans for the weekend?” she asked.

“To be honest… I was thinking about going to Southampton to visit Donna but it turns out, my parents have already prepared something for me and Frank” responded Rebecca.

“I see… And how is Frank?” Genevieve asked.

“He’s fine. Besides, he found a girlfriend, you know?”

“Really? Who?”

“You don’t know her. Cecilia Bridge. She’s from Croydon. Can you believe that? My little brother has a girlfriend! Now he knows what I felt when I had started dating Liam. Frank became SO tolerant. He doesn’t say a word about my boyfriend. Better – he sometimes compliments his behaviour, appearance, etcetera”

Genevieve laughed truly.

“That’s a nice change, I guess?”

“Exactly!” called amused Rebecca and then accidentally ran into Liam.

“Oh!”

“I’m sorry, hun,” apologised Liam; “are you coming? Hi, Genevieve!” he greeted.

“Hi, Liam” responded politely Genevieve and finally found her phone but didn’t turn it on.

“I guess we’ll take off” said Rebecca; “bye, honey, take care and have

a nice weekend!” and walked away with her boyfriend.

Genevieve waved them goodbye and left high school. The weather on the outside was unchanged – there was fog all over the horizon and low temperature.

On the way home, Genevieve was thinking about Rebecca’s relationship with Liam, Frank’s relationship with Cecilia… She realised, she had never had a boyfriend and then the feeling of loneliness came to her heart and shrunk it a little bit. That hurt, nevertheless she knew, there will be the time she finds a perfect guy to spend the rest of her life with.

“Oh…” she sighed; “I wish I had someone to rely on…” she thought. And in an addition, immediately recalled Shakespeare’s love quotes.

Three blocks more and she’d be home.

Suddenly, when Genevieve was crossing an old antique shop, her phone started to ring. She looked at the screen – the upcoming call was from her older sister.

“Giselle?” she asked; “hi, what’s up?”

“Don’t come back home…” said Giselle with panic in her voice.

“What?”

“Don’t you come back home or they’ll find you” cried Genevieve’s sister.

“Giselle, what the hell is going on?” asked frightened Genevieve and started walking faster.

“Just… go somewhere. Hide! They’re coming! I’ll be okay, but you have to run, understood? I’ll be fine. I’ll explain later”

“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on in there!”

“Okay, okay, don’t yell…” begged Giselle, crying a little silently and started the story; “I came back home. When I wanted to open the door, I realised they’ve already been open. I got a little scared, as I know parents come back later on Mondays…” and cried again.

“Okay, ssh… go on, everything’s going to be fine” Genevieve was trying to calm her sister down.

“I walked in… and saw blood all over the floor… It was literally a nightmare. Then I heard some voices, definitely not parents’. I heard two male voices, talking about how they would find me and you, and then kill us. So I took dad’s gun from the living room and went upstairs…”

“You did WHAT?!” yelled Genevieve.

“I couldn’t just leave this situation like that! Anyway, when I got upstairs,

I only found our parents’ bodies… and no one more. They had to escape,

I guess. I called the police. They haven’t come yet, that’s why I’m afraid the murderers can be close. Run if you can…”

The girls both started crying.

“I’m going to be okay, the police will be here soon. Now go!” called Giselle.

“But… where?” cried Genevieve.

“Onward” responded Giselle; “When it’s over, I’ll find you. I promise…

I love you…” whispered Giselle and hung up.

When the signal that appears when the call ends has rung, Genevieve looked panicked all around, with tears all over her face, and started searching for help.

She looked through the crowd, but then realised she had nobody to talk to. “I’m not going to involve strangers in my problems” she thought; “the murderers are dangerous and I don’t want anybody’s death. Especially innocents”

Genevieve entered the park, walked through the pavement, and then started to run, to get to the bus station. She entered the deck (luckily she had a wallet with herself), bought a ticket, and sat lonely on a seat from the window. Before entering the bus, she had a very strange feeling of being watched… And followed…

The fog hasn’t still gone down and all the vehicles on the road seemed to float in it. Genevieve saw receding Big Ben, the London Eye, the Thames, all the shops, bakeries, the library, the streets, the trees. The people…

 “I’m gonna miss you…” whispered Genevieve while touching delicately and sentimentally the glass. “I’ll fix this… You’ll see…”